Not all business owners agree on smoking

If you just read the letters to the editor, you'd think that all business owners want to keep the right to allow smoking in their businesses. However, most business owners are quiet on this subject.

If you talk to very many of them, you'll find that most are in favor of a smoke-free ordinance, even if they allow smoking now. Most of them simply favor a level playing field that only an ordinance can create.

They don't want to ban smoking in their establishment just to send their smoking patrons down the street to the next place that allows smoking. However, if all businesses promote quit smoking, this wouldn't happen.

Sure, the hundreds of other cities that have already gone smoke-free find that smokers grumble. They might even stay home for a couple of weeks. But city after city has proven that smoke-free laws actually improve business over time. What are we waiting for?

I will be voting for this ordinance, and hope you will also.

Source: Amarillo

Polluted Mexico City bans smoking

MEXICO CITY, April 3 (Reuters) - Mexico City on Thursday banned cigarette smoking in all public places, from bars to office buildings, to reduce the amount of carcinogens inhaled by residents of the smog-filled capital and to promote quit smoking.

The city, home to some 18 million people in the metropolitan area, is the latest large city around the world to pass a smoking ban to improve public health and protect nonsmokers from secondary smoke.

But not all Mexicans are happy about the prospect of smoke-free cantinas where tequila and cigarettes are traditionally enjoyed hand-in-hand.

"Right now I'm fine, but later tonight -- after a couple of drinks -- I'm going to really want one," said 26-year-old Rodrigo Nunez, a smoker and government office worker playing a game of pool in a bar in the fashionable Condesa neighborhood on his lunch break.

The law to ban smoking in all enclosed areas, from sidewalk cafes to public transportation to elevators and schools, was passed by the city assembly in November.

Smokers who violate the ban can be fined between $50 and $300, with higher penalties for bar and restaurant owners who allow smoking.

The fines will not be applied until next week, giving restaurant and bar owners time to post large no-smoking signs to let people know about the change.

Major U.S. cities like New York and Los Angeles as well as countries across Europe have enforced similar bans. The Dutch government is even planning a cigarette smoking ban in Amsterdam that would apply to coffee shops where patrons can legally smoke marijuana.

But in Mexico, where businessmen still often smoke in meetings and most restaurants lack nonsmoking sections, the habit will be hard to break.

"The young people will accept it because they will realize that it's a step forward ... it's the old people who will be upset," resident Jose Manuel Ogando said. (Writing by Mica Rosenberg; Editing by Gary Hill)

Quit Smoking Now

Source: Reuters

The Benefits of Quitting Cigarette Smoking

So, what is expected to be found at the end of the road? To quit the smoking habit is a really rewarding experience where you not only cut a harmful habit, but also grow as a person and learn more about yourself. Once you're free of smoking you'll notice these benefits:

An Improved Health
Health is precious, and you'll notice once your body is free of nicotine. You'll breathe better, deeper, will have more energy.

Better Breath
One of the nastiest things about smoking, is the breath it leaves you. You can smell the stinking breath of a smoker, even when he/she isn't smoking!

Better Smell and Taste
Smoking hurt these senses. By smoking you are always abusing them, and over time you lose much of the sensibility you first had. That's also part of the reason why you can't smell your own breath.

Better family time
Now, if you have children, you'll enjoy an extra benefit. You'll be able to play with them, have energy for them and best of all you will give a positive image.

Why Quitting is so Hard?

Quitting smoking is hard. Like I said on my previous post, nicotine is addictive. When you stop ingesting it, your body "bothers" you with cravings because it think it needs it for his own good. that's because your body has been deceived, it thinks that the pleasure is equal to good.

Once you stop smoking, it takes a little time for your blood and brain chemistry to "clean up". this takes around three weeks and can be a hard period to overcome. The body hangs on that need.

once you get past this state, the seocnd phase kicks in. It is time to overcome the "mental addiction". this leads ot problems such as smoking out of habit, because of emotions and such. for this period you have to remain vigilant of your actions. this usally lasts 90 days.

As oyu see these 2 obstacles make quitting smoking hard, but there are aids like tapes that reduce the time considerably, often in less than a month like "Quit Smoking today"

How Long Do Smoking Cravings Last?

Giving up smoking is not as easy as people who never smoked make it sound. In fact many people don't even TRY stop smoking because they start thinking of it as a long painful process. It doesn't have to be that way, but you have to deal with cravings.

Stop smoking is a reverse addiction process. But how addiction begins? It begins when nicotine first enters the brain.

Nicotine is a psychoactive drug causing changes in brain chemistry. Researchers have found that nicotine takes over the reward pathways. These are an part of an area of the brain that rewards good and useful behavior with a feeling of pleasure. It does this by stimulating the release of the neurotransmitter dopamine.

Nicotine must me taken out of the organism little by little. The magic happens around the day 90 when you feel you don't need a cigarette. It is your duty to keep it that way, you may not feel like smoking, but if you smoke you can trigger again the addiction.

Quit Smoking Today.